National Academies

Grants to National Academies

$150,000

2015 (Duration 2 years, 9 months)

Human Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. —

The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine helps shape sound policies, inform public opinion, and advance the pursuit of science, engineering, and medicine. The award supports a study examining tradeoffs associated with access mechanisms that would provide authorized government agencies with the ability to decrypt or otherwise access encrypted information for law enforcement and intelligence gathering purposes and the potential civil liberties and data security challenges that might arise from such mechanisms. The study will not answer whether access mechanisms should be required but rather will provide a thorough analysis of options and tradeoffs associated with them along with policy recommendations. A final report will be issued by the National Academies that aims to help advance a more technically informed conversation about balancing civil liberties, data security, law enforcement and national security in the digital age as it relates to encryption technologies.

The MacArthur Foundation awarded National Academies $150,000 between 1978 and
2018.